Rev. Jim Lynch, Interim Pastor
It is a true joy for me to be sharing this Easter with you all as we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. I see the promise and power of resurrection in every face, in every relationship, and in every life that I have the good fortune to encounter here.
I see the resurrected Jesus reflected in the smiles I encounter when I enter the church. I hear the voice of the resurrected Jesus in the prayers and the songs and the greetings that are shared. I feel the power of the resurrected Jesus in the energy that is so obviously flowing in our worship celebration. I see the re-creative power of God every time I look out my front window and see Pikes Peak in its varying appearances. I see resurrection in the budding spring flowers, straining to burst forth into new life, bringing beauty and revealing the awesome wonder of God.
As I move about in the world I have hope for the future, seeing the potential for resurrection and renewal in those I meet, see, or hear about. There is hope for the addicted person or the lost, lonely person because of what we celebrate today. The single parent, struggling to raise a family alone can have hope because God is continually creating and recreating the world and because resurrection is a reality.
That all sounds lovely, but how do we make resurrection a reality in our world? Resurrection is not a single event frozen in time in the first century, but an ongoing miracle of God brought to life by the church—by Christ in the world. Resurrection is God’s perfect love, lived out in our lives, touching, feeling, and reaching out to us all.
We can sit here and rejoice how God raised Christ from the dead on that day so long ago, but if we stop there, we have missed the entire point of our celebration. We not only celebrate the physical resurrection of the historic Christ, but we ARE the living resurrection. It is through our recognition of the possibilities along with our commitment to be God’s active agents in the world that the hope and joy of new life will pierce through the loneliness and hopelessness of someone’s life and bring them to the possibility of new life in a relationship with Christ.
If we merely sit at the empty tomb and either wonder what happened or simply think how good we’ve got it because of the miracle, then we have not truly experienced the life changing and life giving power that is Easter. Let us resolve as we celebrate this day to keep the light of life and love shining in our world. May you and yours be blessed this day and always with the hope, joy, and love that is the Resurrected Christ. Happy Easter!
